Ferroelectric random-access memories (F-RAM) are considered non-volatile (NV) memory and may include a grid or an array of storage elements or cells, each including an NV element, such as at least one ferroelectric capacitor. The F-RAM circuit may also include one or more associated transistors to select the cell and control reading or writing to the NV elements.
When an external electric field is applied across the ferroelectric material of a ferroelectric capacitor in the cell, dipoles in the material align with the field direction. After the electric field is removed, the dipoles retain their polarization state. Data is stored in the cells as one of two possible electric polarization states in each data storage cell. For example, in a one transistor-one capacitor (1T1C) cell, a “1” may be encoded using a negative remnant polarization, and a “0” is encoded using a positive remnant polarization, or vice versa.